Guidance helps people accomplish
the following goals whether they are learners planning their education,
training and careers, or adults planning their careers or further training,
or preparing to become more employable.

Identify own talents, strengths
and weaknesses, family expectations and national requirements to sort
out the personal relevance of the educational and vocational options
available;

Understand the available
education and training options and the requirements for admission and
success, and select an appropriate field of study;

Understand the work options
that are available, the qualifications required, the means of gaining
entry, the life of the worker and the rewards of the jobs;

Translate information about
self, educational opportunities and the world of work into short-range
and long-range career goals;

Learn effective job-search
procedures;

Develop career adaptability
to be able to take advantage of opportunities as they occur;

Cope with the reactions
to job loss of anger, depression, frustration and apathy, and learn
to take continuing positive action to become employed again;

Identify alternative occupations
when current employment is in jeopardy.

Guidance is more than giving
information. It is a blend of self-development and of the learning and
assimilation of career, providing educational and labour market information.
The development of self-confidence is often a prerequisite for taking
action for one's career. The goals of guidance may be achieved via individual
counselling, self-preparation, career development courses, computer-assisted
guidance and Internet-based guidance systems.

CHALLENGES
OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

As the third millennium approaches,
there is a growing recognition that guidance contributes to the personal,
educational, economic and social development of individuals and nations.

State of the Economy

The first seven years of the
1990s were years of economic expansion in significant parts of Europe,
North America and Asia, yet many countries worried about how well they
could compete in the face of the globalization of trade. They examined
their economic and educational policies and programmes to ensure that
they would have competent, competitive and even entrepreneurial work forces.
Typically, their recipes for future economic success included strengthening
the career guidance services for learners and for workers in the labour
force. As the international economy grew more worrisome and as economic
management became a priority within an increasing range of countries,
the development of competent labour forces was seen as increasingly important
to the future economic well being of countries.

In the past a number of countries
have followed policies that did not particularly welcome the private sector
as an important part of society, but now as some governments downsize
they look more and more to the private sector to provide growth in employment
and to be good 'corporate citizens'. The years of neglect of the private
sector is reflected in the lack of knowledge about basic labour market
information (e.g., occupational descriptions, occupational classification
system, job requirements, pay rates, hiring practices and job forecasts).
The lack of this information and the lack of occupational structures for
the gathering and classification of the information have presented problems
to technical and vocational educators in deciding what programmes to offer.
It also presents a problem to counsellors to provide vocational guidance
when very little vocational information is available.

INNOVATIONSAT
THE TURN OF THE MILLENNIUM

Guidance was first conducted
through group talks and individual interviews with students, but increasingly
it has been recognized that adults are in need of guidance as much as
youth. It has also been accepted that career development is a cumulative
learning often requiring more than an interview or two at significant
transition points such as school leaving, preparation for higher education
or at the time of job loss. Several current innovations are briefly described
below.

Several countries are formulating
career development guidelines to specify the characteristics of
vocational maturity that people should be able to exhibit at each level
of education and employment. These guidelines are then used as specifications
for guidance programmes and for the evaluation of programmes. (Australian
Education Council, 1992; National Occupational Information and Co-ordinating
Committee; National Life Work Centre, 1998.)

Career and personal development
courses typically address the following goals:

Understand the importance
of values, work, friends, family, income and self-fulfilment to personal
and career development;

Develop a sense of control
over one's own life and work and explore one's own abilities, potential,
needs, aspirations, self-monitoring, self-defeating behaviours, self-help
skills and use of resources;

Strengthen one's orientation
to the future and identify steps to be taken, anticipate opportunities
and barriers, timetable steps to the future, seek and identify opportunities,
and take action;

Examine a variety of occupations,
learn about the education and training, licensing, certification or
registration, working conditions and work-life style of the occupations;

Learn decision-making and
apply it to one's own career decisions including setting specific targets;

Examine own self-awareness
and tendency to analyse past experience, including what one has and
has not accomplished and the reasons for successes and disappointments;

Develop the transition skillsof continuously developing one's competencies in the face of adversity
and opportunity, obtain information on the transferability of one's
skills to new opportunities, and of engage in continuous learning. Guidance
courses are often taught by regular teachers with but a few days specialized
training in the subject. (See Ministry of Education, n.d.)

Career education, the
infusion of career and labour market information into the regular subjects
of the curriculum helps make the course material more relevant to everyday
life and also instills the skillsof research, thinking and questioning
into education (rather than teaching them separately).

The past two decades have witnessed
the growth of computer-assisted educational and career guidance
systems that use: interest, aptitude and preference surveys; ed educational
and occupational information; person-occupation matching systems; and
educational and vocational planning systems. A requirement of such systems
is a classification and description of occupations in a jurisdiction.

To make guidance available
to adult populations, a number of governments established career centres
providing a full range of guidance services including individual and group
counselling, labour market information, and job search training. In addition,
an increasing number of major employers have career centres for the use
of their own staff. The companies actively encourage and assist their
employees to acquire advanced skills to make them more promotable. Part
of this service often includes personal career planning offered on a confidential
basis.

Equity has become an
increasingly important focus of career guidance and promises to continue
to be more and more evident in career education and guidance. UNESCO is
a major international influence in this movement (UNESCO, 1987; Bingham
and Martin, 1989; Miller and Vetter, 1996) particularly as it relates
to girls and women. Guidance programmes for persons with disabilities
(Conger, 1997) and for aboriginals (Peavy, 1994, Charter et al., 1994)
are becoming more and more important.

Peer helping is becoming
very popular in some school systems because it has been demonstrated to
be effective in creating a positive peer pressure in contrast to negative
peer pressure. Peers help each other in learning, social activities and
career planning.

Life-skills training
to inculcate problem-solving abilities and their appropriate and responsible
use in the management of one's life in such areas as personal, family,
education, work and leisure is becoming a feature of many programmes for
youth and adults. People who feel that they can influence their own lives,
communicate better, have good relationships in the home and community,
and exhibit social skills appropriate to the learning and workplaces are
more employable and more likely to create opportunities for self-employment.
(Allen et al., 1995.)

School guidance programmes
in a number of countries now include the preparation by each student of
a personal portfolio (National Occupational Information and Coordinating
Committee that contains a record of achievement and action plans. These
documents are drawn up by students as a basis for self-assessment and
future planning. They also provide a medium for the recording of significant
career information and relating it to one's plans.

Simulations of working
life prompt the participants to obtain knowledge of themselves, occupations,
education and training, pay and working conditions, living costs and other
factors and integrate them into alternative career plans. Simulations
are popular with learners and counsellors alike because they provide a
realistic opportunity to test out expectations for the future (e.g. Barry,
1998).

Visits to work sites
students in the ninth year are invited to spend the day in the workplace
with either a parent, friend, relative or volunteer host. A true 'show
and tell' experience for adults, in a multitude of different workplace
settings including airports, police departments, civic centres, industrial
enterprises, banks, restaurants, universities, radio stations, machine
shops and hospitals. The initiative provides opportunities for students
to see workers in different roles and responsibilities, and aims to enhance
students' understanding of individual jobs in the context of the working
community, while linking classroom and workplace experiences directly.
The programme aims to create opportunities for students to see the realities
of the workplace.

Internet

In an effort to make guidance
available to all, and noting the increasing popularity of the Internet,
a few affluent countries provide a full range of career, educational and
labour-market information, and also career and personal planning courses,
via the World Wide Web. In addition to information, some systems include
inventories of interests and aptitudes, occupational choice systems, instructions
on job search techniques, a resume generator, and even simulated job interviews.
These countries like the idea of "self-serve" career guidance.
The information provided by governments is often supplemented by information
offered by educational institutions, employers, professional and trade
associations, and other groups. In a few jurisdictions the Internet guidance
programmes are supplemented with electronic mail communication with a
counsellor and, in some cases, with other users through open discussion
forums. Some experimentation is now underway to provide vocational counselling
via interactive video conferencing on the Internet.

A by-product of Internet-based
systems is that people in any country with access to the Internet can
see the educational and occupational structures and opportunities in other
countries and also use the guidance instruments (interest inventories,
etc.) on-line. It is relevant to note that some of the users of Canadian
Internet-based career systems access them from outside that country. A
more planned effort to provide international guidance on the Internet
is found in the European ESTIA project (www.estia.educ.goteborg.se) which
provides information about education, work and the labour market in four
countries, soon to expand to fourteen countries. Internet connections
are far from being available to most people in most countries. However,
the Internet delivery of career guidance will be increasingly common in
the next century. On-line counseling has some distinct advantages: to
reach people in rural and remote areas; to serve persons with disabilities
that make it difficult for them to attend an office; and to accommodate
people who are apprehensive about receiving counseling face to face.

Educational Reform

Some ministries of education
are in the process of major educational reform because the emergence of
a more 'learning-intensive' economy poses new challenges. Employment is
becoming increasingly fluid, work is increasingly complex, occupational
boundaries are changing or dissolving, and more jobs are temporary. For
these reasons, continual learning is a more important part of work. Five
main elements characterize an education system that is likely to prepare
students effectively for this new environment:

emphasis on science and
technology;

skill standards;

close connection between
vocational and academic education to meet the requirements of learning-intensive
work;

links between employers
and school, and;

workplace learning.

These changes present difficulties
for the learners and many students (and their parents) are in need of
a better understanding of the changes, the implications in terms of career
prospects, the skills to adjust to a scientific mode of thinking and the
cultures of new industrial working life. This situation calls for a special
version of the guidance curriculum and programme generally to provide
the orientation and to teach the learning skills.

School Dropouts

Students who prematurely discontinue
their studies represent a major potential loss to themselves, the economy
and the society. In some countries there is considerable pressure on students
to quit school and help with the farm-work or otherwise bring supplemental
income into their parents' household. Recently some countries have become
increasingly active in attempting to lessen the number of dropouts - and
this is quite feasible because dropping out is seldom done without prior
notice on the part of the student's behaviour.

A number of mechanisms have
been put in place: guidance curriculum; diagnostic surveys intended to
help identify students likely to drop out so that remedial steps may be
taken; remedial programmes for students falling behind in their studies;
teaching of study skills; the implementation of peer helping programmes
to make use of positive peer pressure and to combat negative peer pressure;
combined work and study programmes; and changes in school management practices
to give students the same rights of grievance and appeal that is common
in the workplace. Guidance counsellors are often at the heart of these
programmes.

School-to-work Transition

The articulation of school-based
learning and work-based learning follows significantly different patterns
from country to country. In some jurisdictions there is an almost seamless
transition from the school to apprenticeship programmes. In other jurisdictions
there is a complete separation between school and work. The role of guidance
varies significantly according to the system. In the former it is the
task of counsellors to assist students to select the appropriate types
of work-based training programme and to prepare them for entry. In jurisdictions
without this articulation, the school guidance programme has often been
more geared to preparing the most academically inclined students for university
than to help students who will go immediately into the labour force. Frequently
in cultures that separate secondary education and apprenticeship programmes
parents want their children to go to university and not to prepare for
the trades even though the children have indicated a preference for a
trade. Counsellors have a particular responsibility to explain to parents
the many favourable aspects of a career in the trades.

Increasingly in jurisdictions
that do not articulate school and work-based learning, schools integrate
work experience assignments as an integral part of the curriculum and
seek the co-operation of local employers, unions and professional associations.
According to Stasz (1998) "the power of the work based learning is
that authentic work experiences give learners opportunities to apply knowledge
in useful contexts. They thereby can gain a deeper understanding of both
their abilities and the opportunities they can create for themselves through
experience and/or education. In the end, learning is a personal, developmental
transformation, so it is crucial to pay attention to whether that transformation
occurs, as well as to the context that will enable such a transformation.
It is this context that teachers and counsellors, in and out of school,
have the most ability to shape".

Guidance for Unemployed Workers

The following practices have
been found (Bysshe, 1998 and others) to be helpful in preparing unemployed
workers for new employment:

Identify the "employability
skills" that employers expect of workers and train workers in these
skills;

Use income-support programmes
to train unemployed workers and to get them appropriate work experience
to qualify for new employment;

Teach job search techniques;

Identify the information,
assessment, guidance and training needs of individuals to help them
become employed with-in a realistic time;

Use an action plan, where
the responsibilities of the client and the counsellor are clear;

Provide ongoing help so
that agreed plans are reviewed in the light of progress made and that
necessary support can be given to deal with inevitable disappointments
and failures;

Address issues such as bolstering
confidence and self-esteem, through appropriate measures;

Develop and foster self-help
to maximize the learning for the individual and ensure that all barriers
to effective transition are being addressed; and,

Act as the link between
the individual, and learning and employment opportunities they wish
to enter, including advocating on behalf of the individual.

TRAINING
OF COUNSELLORS

Although there are common elements
in vocational guidance wherever practised, there are also important differences
in terms of culture, education, employment practices and occupational
structures from country to country. Consequently, guidance practitioners
generally need to be trained in the country in which they will practise.

As has been already mentioned,
when guidance is conducted by a course in career development, it is not
unusual to have the course taught by regular classroom teachers who have
had special preparation to teach the course. Whether it is to teach a
career development curriculum or to conduct courses infused with career
education the professional development of teachers should give them a
basic framework for career planning and how to connect activities in the
classroom to the events unfolding in the labour market. As early as 1974
UNESCO recommended that teachers have "an introduction to educational
and occupational guidance methods"(Revised Recommendations for Vocational
and Technical Education, Paris, UNESCO, art. 84 g; see also art. 92).

When guidance is provided through
individual counselling, however, the counsellor is expected to have specialized
training in such areas as: counselling techniques; career, educational
and labour market information; assessment techniques to measure skills,
abilities, aptitudes, interests, values, and personality; needs assessment
techniques; computer and Internet systems of guidance; organizing career
development programmes; teaching job search techniques; establishing linkages
with community-based organizations; and, public relations techniques to
promote career development activities and services. Some training for
counsellors is beginning to appear on the Internet and may be expected
to become increasingly available through that means. Currently there are
no internationally accepted standards for guidance counsellors but the
International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance (IAEVG)
is in the process of establishing a committee to draft such a standard.
International standards are increasingly important as on-line career counselling
can be provided across national boundaries and therefore be immune from
regulation by most, if not all, countries.

Guidance consultants in ministries
usually have the same training as counsellors plus competencies in programme
planning and adoption strategies; guidance curriculum development; differing
cultural values and their relationship to work values; unique career planning
needs of minorities, women, persons with disabilities, and older persons;
and alternative approaches to career planning for learners with specific
needs.

Many countries do not have
"counsellors" although they do have psychologists, sociologists
or others performing some of the functions of a counsellor. The unique
training of educational and vocational counsellors typically is instruction
in: the functioning of the labour market; the structure of the educational
and training systems; how to use labour market information in the counselling
interview; employability skills; and, job-search techniques. In some countries,
training in these areas is needed by those who otherwise have relevant
competencies.

DEVELOPING
NATIONAL SYSTEMS

Ministries of education, labour
and social affairs that deal with different aspects of career guidance
are expected to provide leadership in the development of policy, programmes,
methods and materials, organization structure for delivery, counsellor
training and procedures for evaluation. The guidance materials often include
classification and description of occupations; brochures describing various
educational options and occupations; and computer-assisted guidance systems.

In countries where the private
sector has been traditionally ignored by the government, counsellors in
the ministries have a particular responsibility to establish collaborative
contacts with firms to learn about their occupations, required training,
pay structures, employment practices (for example the use of application
forms by international companies represents an unexpected innovation in
many locations), working conditions, work culture, etc. in order to prepare
relevant and useful guidance programmes.

Lifelong learning is important
as a means to personal, social and economic development. In many communities
there is a variety of formal and non-formal education opportunities for
part-time learners. Perhaps the majority of both formal and non-formal
learning projects undertaken by adults relates to work. This, it appears,
is the prime motive for adult learning. Governments that want their citizens
to enrol in learning projects to increase their employability might take
this notion and promote a career development culture emphasizing personal
achievement. A career development culture would be characterized by elements
such as widespread publicity about future job opportunities and the knowledge
and skills that they will require; promotion of learning opportunities;
and promotion of career guidance services. Increasingly, governments are
involving the voluntary and private sectors in promoting the creation
of a culture of competence.

RECOMMENDATIONS
FOR FUTURE STRATEGIES

A number of recommendations
can be made on the basis of the forgoing. In some cases the responsibility
for action is that of government, in other cases technical and vocational
education and training institutions and associations of counsellors could
initiate action. Government support for guidance is important because:

Economic development is
fast becoming the overarching concern of most governments;

Economic growth is based
increasingly on the availability of highly skilled workers;

Technical and vocational
education and training are very important means to developing a skilled
labour force;

Guidance helps individuals
develop their full potential, identify the most appropriate training,
and succeed in their education and placement in the labour market. A
British study (Killeen, White and Watts, 1992.) indicated that the "learning
outcomes" of guidance (self-awareness, opportunity awareness, decision-making
skills and transition skills) have been demonstrated to be the precursors
of socio-economic outcomes of guidance; and,

guidance supports the UNESCO
values of increasing the educational and labour market accomplishments
of girls and women, of people of all cultures and regions, and of persons
with disabilities, and thereby promotes the use of the full talents
of a country.

National Action

It is recommended that governments
implement the following steps:

1. Establish an office
with responsibility to:

provide funding for vocational
guidance programmes and services;

develop and provide methods
and materials for guidance;

prepare the career guidance
curriculum;

provide training and continuing
education for guidance counsellors and teachers;

conduct research and development
to create new, more comprehensive and better ways of conducting educational
and vocational guidance;

design promotional campaigns
to interest learners, including girls and women, in science and technology;

develop programmes to increase
the retention of learners by schools and thus reduce the numbers of
drop-outs;

design campaigns to develop
a career development culture that encourages all people to participate
in lifelong learning; and,

promote the infusion of
career development concepts into academic subjects to help learners
understand how the course work fits together and forms a body of knowledge
and skills related to performance in work and other aspects of life.

2. Enact legislation
that defines the goals of guidance describes the range of services to
be provided and stipulates the level of resourcing. The legislation should
apply to the services to be provided to learners in educational institutions
and to adults in the labour market.

3. Provide employment
counselling and placement services for learners completing their studies
and for all people in the labour force.

individual counselling is
a specialized function which must be performed by staff members who
possess the required competencies;

the responsibilities of
school principals, teachers and counsellors in respect of the guidance
programme development and delivery are specified;

qualifications that teachers
and counsellors in guidance should have; and, provision of guidance
services to unemployed workers.

5. Enact legislation
to authorize the collection, classification and publishing of labour market
information that is useful to economic development efforts, technical
and vocational training programmes, and educational and vocational guidance.

Associations of Counsellors

Counsellor's associations
have an important part to play in the development of guidance by:

advocating that all citizens
who need and want educational and vocational guidance and counselling
can receive it from a competent professional;

recommending the basic nature
and quality of service to be provided to students and adults;

recommending the essential
training and other qualifications that all counsellors in educational
and vocational guidance should have;

organizing continuing education
programmes for counsellors;

requiring all members to
adhere to a code of ethics; and,

certifying or licensing
counsellors.

Technical and Vocational
Education Institutions

In some jurisdictions, ministries
of education observe the innovations undertaken by leading institutions
and in time adopt or recommend the more successful ones to other schools
in the system. There is, therefore, an important role to be played by
institutions themselves in leading the way for national improvement. There
are several steps that technical and education and training institutions
can undertake in providing guidance to learners:

Hire a counsellor. The tasks
of the counsellor include:

Conduct a needs assessment
to determine what needs to be addressed, the characteristics of the
learners and how they can be reached and served;

Build partnerships within
the school and community of educators, administrators, business and
industry representatives, parents and post-secondary officials to work
as a team to effectively assist the learners in realizing their educational
and career aspirations;

Design comprehensive programmes
that include integrating guidance activities within the regular curriculum;

Plan professional development
activities for school staff to orient them to their roles of successfully
assisting learners in educational and career planning; and,

Conduct an ongoing evaluation
of the programme (adapted from Stern, Bailey and Merritt, 1996.) The
counsellor should endeavour to meet with every potential student to
help him/her select the most appropriate programme, and to meet with
every student at least once every three months to discuss their education
and career plans;

Prepare descriptions of
occupations related to the training being offered. The descriptions
might include: brief description of the work, working conditions, education
and training required, registration, certification or licensing requirements,
average pay, and future outlook. These may be printed. They may also
be entered into computers for learners to search. A consortium of technical
and vocational education and training institutions in collaboration
with UNESCO might prepare a standard format for computerized information;

Prepare descriptions of
the courses and programmes available in the technical and vocational
education and training institutions. These may be printed. They may
also be entered into computers for students in more junior levels of
education to search. As suggested in the previous recommendation, a
consortium of technical and vocational education and training institutions
in collaboration with UNESCO might prepare a standard format for computer
information;

Approach companies or other
organizations with Internet connections to provide access to career
guidance resources on the Internet through their connections. Corporate
assistance in translating the material might also be obtained, if necessary;

Adopt or adapt a career
development curriculum and ensure that teachers are competent to conduct
the course;

Organize relevant work experience
assignments with local employers.

CONCLUSION

Guidance assists learners in
planning their education and training and adults to become more employable
by helping them to: understand and appreciate their talents; relate effectively
to others; explore career alternatives; develop appropriate educational
and voca-tional train-ing plans; implement and complete their plans; and
integrate successfully in society and the labour market. Guidance is important
to education and training institutions because it helps to ensure that
students make the best use of the learning opportunities. In helping citizens
to appreciate their talents and to develop them, guidance helps to increase
the skills of the labour force and therefore the economic potential of
the country.